Regulation key to future airport policy – easyJet
easyJet has called for effective airport regulation to avoid their abuse of monopoly positions.
The no-frills carrier’s chief executive Andy Harrison, while supporting calls from British Airways for the break-up of the UK’s main airports operator BAA, said: “Consumers will not benefit from having BAA replaced by a series of ‘Mini Me’ monopolists.”
Responding to the office of Fair Trading’s probe into UK airports, Harrison said: “Consumers need better protection from the airport oprators who behave like local monopolists, pushing up prices to hide their own inefficiencies. So, whilst easyJet supports the break-up of BAA, the primary focus must be on tougher regulation.
“The issue of ownership is secondary to providing the right regulatory regime.”
easyJet argued that in all but a handful of cases, airports are “local monopolies” with constrained supply but rising demand driven by budget airlines.
Regulations in the 1980s and 1990s capped or reduced BAA charges and encouraged it to become more efficient. But the same regulation now incentivises airports to overbuild and to try to over-charge airlines and consumers for facilities they do not need, the airline claimed.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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